{"id":127409,"date":"2025-11-07T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/127409\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:03:09","slug":"former-fianna-fail-councillor-to-be-sentenced-for-harassing-waitress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/127409\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Fianna F\u00e1il councillor to be sentenced for harassing waitress"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Fianna F\u00e1il councillor who harassed a 25-year-old waitress at work will be sentenced next month.<\/p>\n

Joseph O\u2019Donovan, formerly known as Gary O\u2019Flynn, appeared before Cork District Court on Friday, having previously pleaded guilty to one count of harassment.<\/p>\n

The harassment occurred on three occasions in late July\/early August 2022.<\/p>\n

Judge Mary Dorgan said that the \u201cgood news\u201d was that Mr O\u2019Donovan had been assessed as being of \u201clow risk\u201d of reoffending. She described the victim impact statement furnished to the court as a \u201ccompelling read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Dorgan said that she continued to have certain concerns in relation to the case. She asked defence solicitor Frank Buttimer to have his client furnish proof of his ASD diagnosis and his qualification as a solicitor.<\/p>\n

Judge Dorgan said that she also wanted to hear of the steps taken by Mr O\u2019Donovan to address his issues with alcohol.<\/p>\n

She described the victim impact statement in the case as having been a \u201ccompelling read\u201d before remanding Mr O\u2019Donovan on bail for sentencing on December 4th next.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sgt John Kelleher previously told the court that Mr O\u2019Donovan (49) went to a restaurant in Cork city centre on July 30th, 2022. He stayed for two hours during which time he was drinking wine.<\/p>\n

He flagged down a waitress and kissed her on the hand telling he that she was \u201cthe nicest and prettiest girl he had ever seen.\u201d He continued to engage the young woman in conversation whilst he was in the restaurant. His behaviour made her deeply uneasy.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan of Melvindale House, Coolowen in Blarney, Co Cork returned to the restaurant on August 1st, 2022.<\/p>\n

Sgt Kelleher said that Mr O\u2019Donovan wanted to be served by the same waitress. He ordered food and wine.<\/p>\n

The waitress felt that he was continuously staring in her direction. He again took her hand and kissed it. He breathed in to her ear and said \u2018Meet me outside for a tip and I better get your phone number for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard that Mr O\u2019Donovan then went outside and started staring in the window. Sgt Kelleher said the waitress went out and told the accused that he wasn\u2019t welcome and should leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Mr O\u2019Donovan) went back in again and asked (the waitress) could he see her again. He was asked to leave by management. He threw a fifty euro note at the waitress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan returned to the restaurant on August 6th, 2022 at around 10.30pm when the premises was near closing.<\/p>\n

The waitress told him to leave and Mr O\u2019Donovan said that he was \u2018sorry\u2019 and that he \u2018couldn\u2019t help it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan was arrested later that month. He told gardai he thought young woman was \u201cvery pretty\u201d and that he kissed her hand in a manner seen in movies. He claimed that he had carried out the gesture out of politeness and courtesy.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan said that he was under the impression that his interactions with the woman were \u201ccongenial.\u201d He claimed that he never meant to upset her. He insisted he was very sorry for what had occurred.<\/p>\n

The young woman who was harassed by Mr O\u2019Donovan opted to give her own victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

She said that she had waited three years to have her say in court about what happened to her.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Boy<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Boy convicted of the murder of Ana Kriegel given more time to appeal his sentence<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFor three years I have never stopped looking over my shoulder when I heard steps behind me.<\/p>\n

“This man (O\u2019Donovan) looked me in the eye and called himself a creep. This man looked me in the eyes and called himself a stalker. Then laughed about it.<\/p>\n

Laughter with a laugh that still makes me recoil in fear to this day. That moment has never left me. Because I that moment I realised I wasn\u2019t dealing with someone who didn\u2019t understand boundaries, but someone who chose to violate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph O\u2019Donovan, when he was known as Gary O\u2019Flynn, was a sitting councillor in Cork city from 2003 to 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Fianna F\u00e1il councillor who harassed a 25-year-old waitress at work will be sentenced next month. Joseph…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-127409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}